


Within Arm's Reach

by green_grrl



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Enthusiastic Consentacles, M/M, Tentacle Sex, Tentacles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-05-14
Updated: 2008-05-14
Packaged: 2018-04-01 18:03:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4029484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/green_grrl/pseuds/green_grrl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The one where Daniel gets extra limbs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Within Arm's Reach

**Author's Note:**

> Tentacle!fic—take that as a warning or enticement, as you like. A first time fic, somewhere season 4-5ish. Infinite thanks to starting_gate and brainofck for betaing.
> 
> Remixed by brainofck for the gateverse_remix 2008 challenge: [Within Arm's Reach (The USAF Remix)](http://archiveofourown.org/works/944345).

"Daaniel!" Jack was leaned back as far as the chair would go, staring at Daniel's office ceiling. There was no response, not even a "hmm," from next to him, but he pushed on. "We just came off of a seventy-two hour lockdown. We were offworld for a week before that." Jack popped the chair upright with a jerk and leaned forward to rest his forehead on the desk. "I. Just. Want. To go. Home."

"Hmmm?"

Dammit, the guy never pulled his nose out of a book. Or the computer, in this case.

Still, Jack felt a nudge on his shoulder, and he lifted his head blearily to see a fresh cup of coffee in front of him. He looked left. Daniel was absorbed in the screen. Something niggled him as "off," but he was too tired to chase it down. He reached for the coffee like a lifeline.

"I'm sorry, I'm almost ..." Daniel's voice trailed off into the clatter of keys that had been the constant soundtrack since Jack had arrived.

"That's what you said a half an hour ago," Jack complained.

"It's hardly been ten minutes," Daniel argued distractedly.

"No, _thirty_ minutes," Jack insisted. "I came in at twelve forty-five—the minute they got those toxic mushroom spores under control--and you promised you just needed to wrap up this Lassie thing—"

"Kali."

"Whatever … This thing that you're working on." He had a right to be cranky: it was the middle of the night, his truck was in the shop, and his ride was a workaholic.

The keyboarding stopped for the first time. Daniel must have checked the clock. "God, I'm sorry, Jack. I just ... I had this brainstorm about the P4X facility at dinner. I didn't expect we'd get the all-clear before I finished, but I'm _so_ close, really," he pleaded.

Jack gave up. The things he did for Daniel .... He just waved at him to keep going and laid his forehead on his arms. The typing started up again, and there was a comforting pat on his back.

He sighed and sat up. A little statuette on the corner of the table looked to be good for five minutes of diversion. He started to reach, but before he got there his wrist was caught in a tight grip.

"Nuh, uh. Fragile," Daniel warned in a distracted tone.

Jack stared at his wrist. Daniel was still typing away next to him, but there was a thin rope of warm flesh keeping Jack's hand from touching the artifact. He tracked the rope to where it disappeared under Daniel's BDU jacket.

" _Daaniel_ ," Jack said, giving his name the full _pay attention right now because this is freak-out time_ emphasis.

"What?" Daniel stopped typing and turned.

He looked down at Jack's wrist and froze. "Uh."

The ... tentacle released Jack's wrist with a jerk, as if surprised, then moved in front of Daniel's face where he stared at it with a mixture of curiosity and dread. It moved slowly left. Then right.

"Huh. I, uh ...." Daniel looked up at Jack, in shock.

"Maybe those mutant mushrooms—" Jack started to offer.

"Jack!"

"I'm just sayin', if we're seeing things ...."

"I know. I know! You think _I_ don't wish there wasn’t some freaky ... _thing_ actually sticking out of me?" Daniel gave him a stubborn, angry glare, then deflated. "Believe me, a hallucination would be far preferable." He stood up carefully, "Could you ... could you look ...?"

Jack grimaced, but pushed slowly off his chair and moved behind—far behind—Daniel, while Daniel gingerly pulled off his jacket. Daniel's T-shirt was untucked, and five more tentacles unfurled from below the hem. Two rolled around the bottom of the shirt to grasp and raise it, as easily as Jack would take hold of the front hem of his own T-shirt to pull it up.

Starting just above Daniel's waistband, six tentacles sprouted from his back, three on either side of his spinal column.

Jack watched with a kind of horrified fascination as they unwound out to each side, to a length of about five feet. Each was about the width of a finger at the very tip, and widening to about four times that at the base. The slightly pink skin looked smooth and dry, more or less like a really, _really_ long finger without the knuckles. There were small, soft wrinkles where the tentacles joined his back.

Yeesh. There was a reason Jack didn't watch sci-fi. When he could help it.

One tentacle reached over to the desk and picked up a pen while another grasped Daniel's coffee mug.

"I seem to, uh, I seem to have complete control over moving them," Daniel noted shakily.

Jack had pretty much reached his limit on the freak-o-meter. "Can you, er, put them away?"

The base of each tentacle retracted into Daniel's back, leaving soft folds of skin in concentric circles. The remaining part spiraled around neatly on top. In a weird way it was sort of cool, as long as they were being well behaved.

Jack warily reached towards Daniel's shirt, then in one swift move tugged it down and stepped back. Daniel turned to face him.

"Infirmary," they both said at the same time, but neither moved. They stared at each other a moment longer in stunned silence.

"Well," Jack finally said, "at least they're not _glowy_ tentacles." He made a face. Not his best effort.

Daniel huffed lightly out his nose in a pale imitation of a snort of laughter anyway, and they headed out.

 

 

"Daniel, can you ...?"

"What about when I ...?"

"Let's try ..."

"DNA sequences ... brain mapping ... ambidexterity ... articulation ... fine motor control ..."

Blah, blah, blah. Even in the middle of the night, delayed from a post-quarantine leave, Carter and Fraiser were a little too excited about their new toy to test, poking and prodding and running Daniel through his paces. But Daniel seemed unusually quiet. Not that he wasn't cooperative, and he looked ... fine. And not surprised at all when Fraiser announced that the things were all him. It’s just that Daniel was usually the first to jump in with the "fascinating"s and the "significant implication"s, and he wasn't jumping.

Jack had been ready to rein them all in with a few bon mots about Ray Harryhausen films—which, okay, would have also burned off a little of his own weird feelings about the tentacles—but he didn't have the heart. It wouldn't be any fun if Daniel wasn't going to get all riled up when Jack played Joe Sixpack to his Supergeek.

Besides, Jack suspected Daniel was a lot more freaked out than he was letting on. The doc came at one of the tentacles to get blood and tissue samples, and it flinched back involuntarily. Jack winced in sympathy. The other tentacles flailed briefly, too, even though Daniel looked calm and controlled.

But one tendril made its way towards Jack, reminding him of nothing so much as Charlie as a toddler, sneaking his hand up into Jack's for security when faced with strangers. As freaked as Jack had been at first by the transformation, watching Daniel under siege brought out Jack's protective instincts. Weird tentacle-thing or not, it was still a part of _Daniel_ , and he gave it a reassuring squeeze. Surprised, Daniel turned towards him. He looked down at the tentacle in Jack's hand, and realized what he'd done. Jack was pretty sure that was a rueful but grateful smile Daniel flashed him before turning away and pulling his tentacle back in.

Jack hovered until the doc finally released Daniel to base quarters to sleep while overnight tests ran, and then Jack strayed only as far as the room next door. There was no way he was leaving the base while Daniel was in trouble.

 

 

The next day, there was more poking and testing, punctuated by interminable waits. Jack snagged a notepad that wound up at the end of the session covered with:  


> 1\. Shuffle cards with tentacles  
>  ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||  
>  52-card pickup: 36, shuffle: 1
> 
> 2\. ~~Juggle with tentacles~~  
>  ~~Get Teal’c to talk Daniel into learning to juggle with tentacles.~~  
>  Note: Buy itching powder for Teal’c’s Sox cap. Spoilsport.
> 
> 3\. Yo-yoing with tentacles  
>  Note: Buy more yo-yos—1 too easy (w/tentacle—hopeless by hand.)
> 
> 4\. ~~Darts~~  
>  BAD IDEA
> 
> 5\. Chopsticks  
>  Note: Ask Base Laundry what stain remover to use for hoisin sauce.

  
See? Jack could do the scientific method, and have a lot more fun, too. Daniel, of course, bickered about every activity Jack wanted him to try, but Jack was sure that was just for show. Pretty sure, anyway.

Carter became a little more human around lunchtime, and focused her sunny disposition on Daniel instead of his blood vials. Watching him wrestle the last of his pork chow fun more or less successfully out of the container, she coaxed a smile out of Daniel by teasing him about how useful it would be to hold his books and turn the pages while eating and typing, all at the same time. "But don’t worry," she added, dumping her empty lo mein box and patting him on the shoulder, "we’ll figure out what went wrong and fix it." Then she hurried back to the doc to get the latest test results, and missed the way the light faded from Daniel’s face at her last remark.

Jack picked up one of the dejected looking tentacles and stroked it comfortingly. Daniel leaned ever so slightly against Jack and sighed.

Teal’c stopped by next, checking in after his hand-to-hand workout. "You are looking well, Daniel Jackson." At least Teal’c was pretty unflappable about the whole tentacle thing, but then Teal’c was unflappable about anything that didn’t involve a decades-old honor feud. And Daniel had a lifetime supply of unflap stored up on his account with Teal'c, so he was set there.

"Hey, Doc Ock!"

Ferretti, on the other hand ... Jack and Teal'c were giving him their scariest looks, and they didn't hold a candle to the glare from Daniel. Ferretti fled like a rubber band was pulling him back through the door. So, apparently Daniel _had_ seen Spider-Man 2.

 

 

Finally it was time for the briefing, and even more boring than waiting for the tests was hearing about them all over again. Carter and the doc were still enthusiastically in full "scientific discovery" mode, Fraiser in the lead.

"Well, they're more like invertebrate tentacles than a vertebral structure; there's no bone or cartilage in them. There is a small alteration in one of his DNA markers that probably accounts for this change, which I'm looking forward to identifying. But the appendages themselves are 'Daniel,' a fully integrated part of his body." Under her usual brisk professionalism, her eyes were practically gleaming with scientific curiosity. Jack just hoped she already had enough blood on ice so that Daniel could escape playing lab rat for a while.

Carter jumped in eagerly, "Even more fascinating, sir, is the way they are so integrated into Daniel's brain. He has near-perfect control of them, to the point where he uses them unconsciously, the way you can scratch an itch without thinking about it." She beamed at Daniel like a proud mama. "Perhaps because he's only just become consciously aware of them, they actually seem to tap into his subconscious more clearly than his conscious mind." Yeah, like his little hand-holding in the infirmary.

Fraiser took up the report again. "Yes, which shouldn't be possible. Children spend years perfecting their motor control. Daniel certainly didn't have these during his physical when he returned from P4X-389, yet within seventy-two hours managed to grow and develop his use of the appendages without even being aware of them."

General Hammond gave Daniel a somewhat astonished look. Daniel shrugged uncomfortably. "I'm not really in the habit of looking at my back in the mirror every day. I knew my appetite was up, and I was having restless nights, but I just didn't realize I'd, uh, grown new body parts." Jack wasn't surprised to feel a hesitant touch on his leg, as Daniel tried to keep his nervousness from showing above the table.

Fraiser gave him a reassuring smile before she elaborated. "At this point we're not sure whether his mastery of his new limbs is something completely instinctual or something worked out with his subconscious mind during sleep. But his abilities were developed without his awareness, until he actually saw one of the ... tentacles."

"All right Doctor, thank you; that's a good baseline of information. Please keep me apprised of anything else you discover. Meanwhile, I want to know how the hell this happened." No matter how much weirdness they saw come through the gate, there would always be something new to give the general that incredulous tone. Jack knew the feeling.

The tentacle tightened around his leg a moment, before withdrawing as Daniel took up the story. "Well, sir, there was that obelisk in Kali's facility on P4X-389 that Sam said gave off an brief energy reading, which we couldn't get to repeat. The text on the obelisk referred to a 'striving for perfection'—which, in the context of the rest of the projects we discovered, I took to mean research for the perfect weapon." Yeah, Jack had thought there might be some possibilities there, but a week of babysitting a science team on the planet hadn't yielded any results. "Now," Daniel continued, warming up to the briefing now that it was on his turf, "I wonder whether she might have been doing some genetic research as well, seeking to make improved hosts."

"Like Nirrti," the general observed, frowning in concentration—drawing the parallels and thinking thorough the implications.

"Exactly," said Daniel, a tentacle pointing in emphasis. "Hindu representations of Kali portray her with either four or ten arms. To actually occupy a multi-limbed host would give a goa'uld a tremendous psychological intimidation factor, plus," Daniel used two tentacles to pick up his and Jack's pens from the table and spin them like knives, "have an actual tactical advantage." He focused on the twirling for a moment—doing a damn nice job of it, really—then suddenly stopped, looking a little abashed at his display.

"Sweet!" said Jack, and clapped him on the shoulder for reassurance. He’d caught Teal'c eyeballing the moves, too. "Just think of what kind of funky martial arts moves you could come up with for hand-to-hand-to-hand-to-hand-to-hand-to-hand-to-hand-to-hand combat."

Daniel gave him a withering glare, so Jack counted back over his comment in his head. He'd said eight "hand"s, right? Was "hand"s the wrong thing to say, since they aren’t?

Daniel pointedly turned to the general and continued, "I'm not sure whether Nirrti and Kali were in a biological arms race—uh, no pun intended—or whether Nirrti appropriated Kali's idea of genetic manipulation of potential hosts after Kali's defeat."

"Unfortunately," Teal'c said, from the far end of the table, "I am unfamiliar with Nirrti's ancient history. Nirrti was of little concern to Apophis; he had no interest in biological sciences."

"Well, she's Cronus's problem now," said Jack with grim satisfaction.

"We may never know the full history of the goa'uld," the general said, "but what I do want to know is can we do anything with the technology in this obelisk, now we know what its purpose was, and fix Doctor Jackson?" Hammond’s voice had nothing but concern for Daniel, but Jack caught Daniel's wince out of the corner of his eye.

Carter fielded the question. "It's possible that now we know its function, we could do a better study of the obelisk. I'd like to take a science team back and check it out again."

"I agree. We'll schedule you a team. I'd like to get Doctor Jackson back to normal with a minimum delay. If one of these tentacles catches a falling can from a supermarket display on reflex, there'll be a panic." He gave an apologetic look at Daniel before asking, "Doctor Fraiser, is there any possibility of removing these ... appendages surgically?"

This time Jack fought to suppress a wince himself, and he wasn't surprised to feel a tight, panicked grip on his knee.

Fraiser wrinkled her brow as she responded, "I'd want to look more into the nerve connections with the spinal cord, especially given their location, but I suspect it would be no more difficult than any other amputation. However, General," she gave him a direct, serious look, "it _would_ be an amputation. Daniel has already come to expect and rely on the use of these limbs every bit as much as his arms and legs. Removing them would certainly cause a psychological feeling of loss, and may leave him with the disorienting or painful sensation of phantom limbs." She gave Daniel a look that promised him protection and, okay, maybe she wasn't entirely Doctor Frankenstein's evil twin.

"I see." The general pondered a moment. "Unfortunately, I can't allow Doctor Jackson to leave the base in this condition."

"Yeah, but sir," Jack protested, "he hasn't had conscious knowledge of these things too long. With a little practice, he can probably learn to keep them to himself in public, like the way a kid learns not to pick his nose."

Daniel gave him an incredulous look.

Teal'c added, "Perhaps a binding, such as the one I wear to prevent inadvertent glimpses of my symbiote pouch, would assist in protecting his secret."

The general nodded thoughtfully. "All right. We have some options to consider. Major Carter, you'll take a team back to P4X-389 Monday at oh-eight hundred, and Doctor Fraiser, I'd like you to look into a training protocol for Doctor Jackson. In the meantime, however, SG-1 is long overdue for some downtime. Forty-eight hours. Colonel O'Neill, I'll allow Doctor Jackson to leave the base if you're keeping an eye on him."

"Daniel's always welcome to bunk at my place, sir," Jack responded, hiding his relief. _He'd_ feel a lot better keeping an eye on Daniel, too.

"No offense, son," the general told Daniel kindly, "I'd just rather not find out you'd been lynched by a mob or become a tabloid headline just after leaving the Mountain." Jack shuddered at the thought, while Teal'c raised an eyebrow.

"I understand, sir," replied Daniel neutrally. Jack looked carefully, but didn't see any hidden signs that he was secretly seething at being assigned a keeper.

"All right, people, dismissed."

Carter and Fraiser spared reassuring smiles for Daniel before running back to the lab again, and Daniel and Jack headed to Teal'c's to borrow a binding.

 

 

That evening at home, the wrap came off as soon as they walked in the door—"Gah!" was all Daniel said.

Strange as it seemed, Jack was relieved the tentacles were freed, too. During the relatively short drive, Jack had already missed the little gestures and touches from Daniel's new limbs. But as they were in the kitchen unpacking the groceries (a solo run into the store by Jack, while Daniel stayed in the car), Jack felt a slight pressure on his shoulder as Daniel leaned to reach the cupboard on the other side of him. It was ... nice.

Once upon a time, he'd touched Daniel whenever he was within arm's reach—a pat on the shoulder, a hand on the back of the neck, a ruffle of the hair. Daniel had never been a toucher himself, though, and over the years he'd become more soldierly, so Jack had weaned himself from the habit. But he'd felt the lack, keenly.

So when Daniel straightened and the touch slowly retreated, Jack placed his hand against Daniel's hip as he stepped around him.

They continued weaving around each other, organizing the kitchen, and preparing dinner. Jack felt more little touches—for reassurance? Companionship? A couple of times Daniel caught himself doing it, and pulled his tentacle back, embarrassed, but Jack just kept giving him small touches of his own.

As long as Daniel—or some part of him—was reaching out, Jack was going to indulge. Daniel was probably feeling like a carnival sideshow, so it was good for him to know that Jack wasn't going to shrink away from him. Which was actually kind of a surprise to Jack, too. Because, tentacles: weird. But they really did seem so natural on Daniel that once he'd gotten over the shock, they kind of … fit.

All the close contact during cooking dinner, eating, then settling in front of the television together felt almost ... intimate. Jack flushed and raised his beer for a pull, flustered by the well-worn path his thoughts were going down—a path strictly not allowed to intrude on real-friend time. Fortunately, Daniel was too busy commandeering the remote to pay any attention to Jack distracted by his train of thought. Jack forced himself to lock away the "what if"s and "I wish"s, and just be there with Daniel, always rewarding in its own right.

Soon enough Jack had to laugh as Daniel flung a hand out and shouted back at the television in exasperation over some archeological "expert" on the Discovery channel, while his tentacles waved around in indignation.

Daniel stopped mid-rant in confusion. "What?"

"Your ..." Jack used his fingers to imitate Daniel's display. "It's, uh, cute."

Daniel blushed and curled his tentacles back in. "I don't even realize I'm doing it. It must be that subconscious thing Sam was talking about."

"No big deal," Jack assured him. "You'll get better at it. But still, I kinda like it—it's very 'you: extra-gesturing edition.'"

Daniel looked at him, puzzled, and a tentacle absently pushed his glasses back up his nose.

Jack grinned at the sight. "Seriously, free-tentacle zone at mi casa. Don't worry about it."

"O-kay," drawled Daniel. He stretched his tentacles out in a fan, then relaxed them and settled back on the couch.

Jack made a mental note to play some chess with him the next day. He bet Daniel would unconsciously sketch the moves he was thinking of in the air. Yeah, Jack could probably get a few good wins in before Daniel figured it out. Heh.

After the ridiculous history show, they switched to the classic movie channel, and settled in with popcorn and more beer. They both had a fondness for old black and whites. It was a while before Jack realized there was a tentacle snaked across his shoulders—not until it actually started rhythmically stroking his upper arm. And then he noticed the one lying lightly across his thigh. It was almost like ... Could he really ...?

"Daniel?"

"Hmm?" He was still glued to the screen.

Jack lightly cleared his throat. "Um, subconscious mind?"

Daniel turned, then saw where his tentacles were and whipped them back, face turning scarlet. "Uh ..."

"No, wait!" Jack closed the gap between them and put his hand on Daniel's knee. "Is this ...? Do you ...?"

Daniel stared at Jack's hand, then glanced at Jack's face, then looked back at his hand. A tentacle reached out and hovered over it questioningly. It withdrew, and Daniel put his own hand over Jack's. Jack turned his hand, clasping them together. Daniel let out a breath of relief. "Oh, god, I never thought ..."

"I know, me either," replied Jack, his heart beating a mile a minute.

"You really ...?"

"Yeah."

Daniel's hand gripped his as he slowly leaned forward. Jack met him halfway.

The kiss was awkward.

"Wait," said Jack, and changed his angle. _Holy ..._ Jack knew he'd been drawn towards Daniel but this was enough chemistry to power the Stargate.

A passionate makeout session became a stumbled trip down the hall became a frantic tearing off of clothes, which—wow—went a lot faster with ten "hands" than four.

In no time at all, Daniel was flat on his back on Jack's bed, gloriously naked, with Jack oh so happily naked on top of him. Skin everywhere—Jack slid up and down, feeling the full length of Daniel's body against his. Daniel's hands and tentacles were doing their own exploring. One hand reached between them, taking hold of both of their cocks together, and they bucked in unison into the grip.

"Daniel," Jack rasped, and it was a thanks and a prayer and a blessing all at once. Daniel pumped them steadily, a wordless answer to the prayer, and time became lost in a blur.

Jack watched in amazement Daniel's face, glowing with pleasure from being with _him_. The tip of a tentacle slipped into Daniel's mouth. Jack pushed up to try to watch it as it slid down and around behind them. Daniel's legs spread wider, and Jack felt the surge as Daniel pushed harder against him, biting back a moan.

"Oh, god, are you ...?"

"Yeah," breathed Daniel, glassy-eyed. "You want one?"

"Oh, yeah," said Jack, and Daniel lifted another tentacle in front of Jack's mouth.

Jack licked the tip, then sucked it in and pulled back, leaving it slick and shiny. He spread his legs, and felt wet firmness circle teasingly, and enter. A steady press soon had him opened wider than a fingertip, but it was a smooth glide, and it aimed unerringly towards ... there. _Oh god._ Jack bucked, and dropped to his elbows to let his head fall forward against Daniel's shoulder.

Daniel took up an achingly slow rhythm with his hand, matching it with a prostate massage that was generating an exquisite bliss, building incrementally with each tug. Then a hand was stroking Jack's face, and something else stroked their cocks together, and it didn't matter—it was all swirling in a haze of sensation.

Jack lifted his head as he ran his hand down Daniel's cheek. There was such a look of transparent joy and tenderness on his friend's face that a swell of emotion spread from Jack's heart outward, magnifying the physical glow and taking him over completely.

He bent down and was met with an unbearably sweet kiss.

That connection of hearts through mouths, and the feel of Daniel against him, rocking in rhythm with him, around him, inside him—every part of him—was too much. Jack came and came and came, a gentle tug on his balls prolonging the ecstasy until he whited out.

 

 

When Jack recovered his senses, slippery and sated and comfortably resting on Daniel's shoulder, he was feeling the kind of peace he normally felt at the edge of his pond, listening to the water lap against the dock. Maybe it was the beat of Daniel's heart and the soft, short strokes against his back, his hip, his shoulder, his thigh, that evoked the image.

He raised his head to give Daniel another kiss, and was greeted with a smile of radiant happiness, a look he hadn't seen in far, far too long on Daniel's face.

Jack felt completely broken open and yet completely, utterly safe—a paradox of the heart he hadn't ever expected to feel again after so much personal pain and professional guardedness. But Daniel's innate integrity and honesty were Jack's touchstones; he trusted himself to that.

A tentacle snagged a discarded T-shirt from the floor and pushed between them to mop the wet off.

Jack reached out a tentative finger to stroke along the "arm" of it. "Handy little buggers," he commented.

"Yeah," said Daniel. "I'm kind of spoiled already. I'm afraid losing them really would feel like losing a—or, rather, six—limbs." Daniel's body gave a slight shiver against his.

"It'll be okay," Jack promised. "We won't let anything happen to them." He held Daniel close, settled them into a comfortable position, and drifted off to sleep.

 

 

The next morning, Jack found himself spooned against Daniel's back. He pulled away and took a look at what he'd been pressed against. The tentacles were mostly quiescent, retracted and curled, with one unfurled and idly rubbing against what must have been an itch on Daniel's leg. Jack watched, fascinated, as it finished and coiled itself back into place.

He traced a light finger around the soft wrinkled skin at the edge of the retracted area. It felt thin and velvety, and pulsed a little in response to his touch.

He stroked it again, a little harder.

"Hmmm." Daniel stretched into the touch in his sleep.

Curious, Jack scooted down and ran his tongue firmly around the soft wrinkles surrounding one of the tentacles. It tasted just like Daniel's regular skin, with the delicate feel of a sensitive area.

"Mmmm," Daniel moaned again, and melted into a boneless pose, half on his stomach. Oh, yeah.

With that encouragement, Jack got on all fours over him, and began laving around all six circles. The tentacle tips started fluttering in appreciation, so Jack took one into his mouth to suck and give a gentle nip.

"Nnngh. Oh god." Daniel had the sleepy sound of someone possibly not quite awake, but his hips were starting to grind against the mattress and Jack wasn't about to stop now.

He experimented with lips, tongue and teeth around the edges, along the curls, at the tips. Daniel and the tentacles both writhed sensually. One slipped around to Daniel's front and started moving with an obvious rhythm. Two wrapped around Jack's back and hugged him, stroking him encouragingly to continue. He took the top two, now extended, and held them apart while he licked from the base of one to the other across the vertebra between them.

"God, Jack!" Daniel was definitely awake now, and humping away in earnest.

Jack turned his attention towards the end of one of the limbs, and pulled its tip into his mouth, sucking it and tonguing it for all he was worth.

"Oh, yeaaa—" Daniel tensed and shook beneath him—the tentacles jerking with the spasms—then he slumped, breathing heavily.

Jack kissed his way up Daniel's spine to his neck. Daniel rolled over and gave him a sleepy smile.

"Nice wakeup call."

"I just couldn't resist a little tentalingus in the morning."

Daniel snorted appreciatively and stretched. "Wow. New erogenous zones. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to watch you eat calamari without getting a hard-on."

"Nope, no more calamari. You're the only squid for me," Jack teased.

Daniel gave a mock growl and flipped Jack onto his back. "This better not be the start of Squid Boy as your new nickname for me." Tentacles reached around Jack's wrists and pinned them over his head.

"Octopus Boy?" Jack tried, straining his arms against the, hmm, _very_ strong grip.

"How about I make it very, very worth your while to avoid all mentions of the class Cephalopoda?" Tentacles twined around each of Jack's thighs and pulled them wide.

"Very?"

"Very," Daniel promised with a heated look.

Little Jack was a goner for that look, which meant Big Jack caved immediately. "Yeah, okay." Daniel bent his head and sucked Jack's remaining free appendage into his mouth. And— _holy shit_ —what a mouth. With Jack pinned down, it left Daniel's hands free to work Jack's balls and shaft, with tentacles left over to find Jack's sensitive spots. Daniel had Jack shooting down his throat in no time.

"Jesus Christ." Jack was spent.

"Hmm, more like Shiva." Daniel crawled up for a kiss. Sure, there was some smug mixed in with Daniel's happy, but he'd earned it.

Jack held him tight. "We're keeping these," he said, petting the nearest appendage.

"Jack, we don't know if that's workable," Daniel protested.

"We'll _make_ it work." Jack rolled him over and kissed him. "We'll work on your conscious control; we'll build you a house on the Mountain; the two of us will transfer to the Alpha Site or somewhere else offworld ... something. I promise. These are part of you, now. We can't ... we can't let them _mutilate_ you."

"Thank you." Daniel glowed up at him. Then he turned shyly curious. "You'd move offworld with me?"

"Try and leave without me. In case you haven't noticed," Jack gave him a squeeze, "you've gained _another_ appendage."

Daniel shook his head, and smiled. "More than an appendage, Jack. Another heart."


End file.
